Asian shares mostly bounce; selloff on pause

DanielInman

Asian stocks mostly bounced back Wednesday, as the global selloff that has shaken markets in recent weeks paused, while a number of major Japanese companies made substantial gains.

Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average
NIK, +0.30%
rose 1.1%, as the market recovered from a bruising 4.2% slide on Tuesday — its steepest decline since June.

Toyota

Toyota Corolla

The Nikkei was supported by a weaker yen, as the dollar pushed 0.7% higher against the Japanese currency on Tuesday. The index however came off its highs as the greenback gave up some of those gains in Asian trading. On Wednesday, the greenback
USDJPY, -0.20%
was last at ¥101.47 compared with ¥101.64 late Tuesday in New York.

Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea’s Kospi
SEU, +0.55%
added 0.6%, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200
XJO, +0.52%
continued to fall. Stocks in Sydney lost 0.2%, adding to a 1.8% drop in the previous session.

In China, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index
HSI, +0.56%
added 0.3%, reclaiming some of the 2.9% lost on Monday. Shanghai markets remained closed for a public holiday.

In Taiwan, where the stock market started trading for the first time since the Lunar New Year holidays, the Taiex was catching up with the region’s falls, with the headline index down 2%.

The most recent selloff was sparked by disappointing U.S. manufacturing data. But the absence of fresh selling catalysts allowed Wall Street to recover overnight, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA, -0.32%
gained 0.5% on Tuesday, which in turn gave Asia some breathing room. The next major event on the horizon is the labor report out of the U.S., with nonfarm payrolls due on Friday.

Global markets have been under pressure for nearly two weeks now, as heavy selling in emerging markets as diverse as Argentina and Turkey gradually spread to developed markets like the U.S. and Japan.

The relative calm on Wednesday allowed investors to concentrate on a series of strong earnings reports from Tokyo, which resulted in some large gains for a number of high-profile Japanese companies.

At the forefront was Panasonic Corp.
6752, +0.66%PCRFF, +1.39%
, which surged 18.4% after the firm turned a net profit in the latest nine month period for the first time in three years. Toyota Motor Corp.
7203, +1.10%TM, +0.90%
jumped 6.1% after it projected a record net profit for the current fiscal year ending March.

Also in Tokyo, shares in Sony Corp.
6758, -1.45%SNE, -2.64%
jumped 4.8%, after the Nikkei reported that the electronics firm is in talks to sell its personal computer business to Japan Industrial Partners, an investment fund.

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